A hernia defect is an opening or weakness in a tissue or muscle wall, such as the abdominal wall. One approach for repairing a hernia is to cover the tissue or muscle wall defect with a patch of repair fabric. The patch may be placed in an open procedure or through a minimally invasive procedure, such as by a laparoscopic technique.
In a laparoscopic hernia repair, a patch is delivered through a narrow cannula to a treatment site within the patient. Because the patch is much larger than the cannula bore, the patch must be reduced in size to enable passage through the small opening into the patient. After laparoscopic deployment, the patch needs to return to an enlarged shape sufficient to cover the defect. Some hernia repair patches include a resilient support member, such as an elastic wire, that is collapsed along with the patch into a reduced configuration and delivered through the laparoscopic cannula. After exiting the cannula, the resilient support member unfurls causing the associated patch to expand into the enlarged repair configuration. The expanded patch including the resilient support member is then fixated to the tissue or muscle wall over the defect.